


Familial bond

by FantasticFlareon



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: And we're not in a room. So i mean across the entire internet., Author Is Sleep Deprived, Clem has Survivors guilt and PTSD, Gen, If i catch ANYONE being mean to Sarah i'll throw them across the room., Sarah is a precious angel that must be protected, Uhh rebecca and alvin are pretty cool, it fits, lowkey me projecting the survivors guilt part but eh, same with Sarah., specific warnings at the start of each chapter, tags will be added as needed, they get more screentime here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-08-29 02:40:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16735518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FantasticFlareon/pseuds/FantasticFlareon
Summary: After Omid's death, Christa and Clementine kept moving on, they had to. It's during a particular panicked day that Clementine meets someone that she wishes they never had the 'privilege' to meet.





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for this chapter: Mentioned death of a newborn, Implied depression, mentioned Character death, (ask if you want me to tag extra ones!)

"Clementine its time to get up" Christa chided. Clementine grumbles from her spot on the floor in a weak act of defiance. "..Clementine.. we have to get moving" Christa started, Clementine ignored her, only curling into herself, before the young girl could stop herself she muttered a quick "I dont want to" "Clementine, please" Christa tried, hoping that Clementine would snap out of the depressed state. Clementine stayed quiet, and Christa, at a loss, sighed. "okay, how about this. I'll give you a piggy back ride and you can continue sleeping..?" Clementine mumbled something under her breath, unhearable to Christa. Christa carefully picked Clementine up, and Clementine immediately rested her head on Christa's shoulder. Clementine had been like this lately, ever since Omid- She choked back her emotions and guilt at the thought of him the girl had barely talked and she must have been losing sleep because she took any possible opportunity to lay down or sleep.

~~

 

"Christa?" her voice was soft, and Christa hummed in response. "..I'm sorry..." Christa's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. what was the girl apologizing for? "I got everyone killed. I wonder if Lee would still be alive if I wasn't..." "Don't. Self-blame gets you nowhere" Christa hissed. "you have to try to find something else to blame. For example, that guy that kidnapped you" Clementine flinched, and Christa idly thinks about how that may be the most shes reacted to anything this past year

~~

Clementine runs through the forest, ignoring the harsh snaps that follow after her like a trail as twigs get caught on her clothing. She needs to find medicine for Christa, she needed to stay back and help her with the baby's birth. _'shes trusting you with this Clem!'_ she told herself. 

~~

Clementine hurridly stuffed the pills into her backpack, not bothering to see what the labels were. she had managed to find some sort of small pharmacy, a couple of the isles had remaining bottles. she was near the back of the store when she heard the door to the store open. Eyes going wide and panic set in as she dropped her backpack, the bottles clanging together noisily so she could hide. before she could do that, a sharp woman's voice called out from the front of the store. "Who's there?" Clementine stopped dead in her tracks as her eyes widened. They knew she was here now, her only hope gone.

Clementine slowly crept over to the next aisle, wincing as she kicked a small empty glass bottle into the shelving. badly muffled footsteps headed towards her direction. Clementine panicked, running away from the footsteps as her mind raced. eventually, she made her way to the front door, ducking outside with a quiet click as she shut the door behind her.

Glancing around the area, she noticed a car that definitely wasn't there before. she weighed her options, she could either leave and return to Christa and Molly with no medicine or risk trying to get the medicine from inside again. Slowly opening the door, she crept inside, ignoring the shining light in the back end of the store, slowly going past the isles. She should have enough time if she's careful 'If she isn't then' She doesn't want to think about it.

"Hey! you!" the same woman's voice called out just as Clementine reached the bag. Glancing over as she got the bag into her hands, she noticed the woman had a pistol, gripping it in her right hand. 'shit' "Just leave me alone, please" Clementine tried her luck, _'maybe this woman would pity her enough to just let her leave?'_ "wheres your group?" the woman asked. "I don't have one." "well, you obviously do, considering you're scavenging for medicine. and you don't look that sick or Injured" the woman paused. "so essentially, I call bullshit" Clementine flinched at the sudden curse word, suddenly aware of the blunt hammer tucked into her own bag. If needed she could fight back, if she can just grab it "Put the bag down" the woman threatened. _'Okay nevermind to the fighting back plan.'_ Clementine glared at her, dropping the bag to the ground. Suddenly, the Radio on the woman's belt emitted a low static sound, before another person's voice came out of the speaker. "Tavia? what's going on out there?" The woman paused, grabbing the Radio and speaking into it quietly. Clementine was unable to hear what she was saying, she only hoped it wasn't bad. after a minute or so, Tavia attached the radio back onto her belt. "Okay kid, we're gonna be bringing you and your group back to ours" She grumbled. "I um, we're not interested?" Clementine tried, honestly wishing the woman would stop aiming a gun at her for a couple seconds at least. "well you dont have a fucking choice" she spat hatefully.

"Tell Bill we're gonna be bringing more people in, Tavia out."


	2. Chapter 1- All that remains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is still just filler but hhhh
> 
> -specific warnings-  
> Grief? this chapter is somewhat family friendly considering its a walking dead game fic-

_'Escaping from Carver's camp alone is difficult'_ Clementine thinks to herself _'Surviving alone? a tiny bit easier, with all the lessons Christa and Molly drilled into her head any chance they had.'_  
something that never got easier, however, is realizing that your friends could be dead or Hurt because they chose to help you, and you'll probably never know.

 

Clementine ran, remembering how Molly had helped her escape, telling her that Christa would follow after her.  
She never found Christa, and she just kept running.

 

When Clementine finally stops, shes in a small clearing in the middle of a forest, the open area makes her nervous, but she decides that if this is how she has to sleep to get away from Carver and his men, so be it.

 

she climbed a tree and tried to sleep in it, briefly wondering if any animals passed by this area recently, remembering a similar situation back when she was eight. A raccoon had made its home in her tree house, Clementine tried feeding it to Sandra's confusion.

 

_She doesn't open her eyes to see the leaves above her head, she opens her eyes and shes in her treehouse, cold, hungry, and afraid._

_The wood looks almost unrotted, something that likely changed after all this time away from it. Around five years?_  
_shes barely kept track of her age, as of right now she assumes shes around twelve?_

_"who is this?" Lee's voice drifted through her Walkie-talkie, and she found herself picking it up. "I-I'm Clementine." she paused "This was- Is- my house"_

_"Hi Clementine, I'm Lee" his voice is soft, nurturing almost._  
_"You're not my Daddy" she says_  
_"..no, im not.." Lee sounds almost sad now,_  
_"how old are you?" He asked._  
_"eight," she said into the Walkie-talkie. "and you're all alone?" "yes. I dont know where anybody is.." She paused,_  
_"How old are you?"_  
_"I'm uh. Thirty-seven"_  
_"okay"_  
_"where are your parents?"_  
_"They took a trip and left me with Sandra, They're in Savannah I think? where the boats are?"_  
_"are you safe?"_  
_"I'm outside in my treehouse! They can't get in."_  
_"That's smart"_  
_"see? can you see me? I can see you through the window!" Clementine poked her head out of the Treehouse door. Lee gave a little wave, smiling softly._  
_Suddenly, Clementine let out a shriek as Sandra appeared behind Lee. He tried to push it away, screaming in horror as the rotting corpse tried to attack him._

_He pushed it back into a counter, Running and slipping on a puddle of blood. his vision blurry, he still managed to kick Sandra back and crawl away from her. The walker managed to knock him over by grabbing at his ankle and he kicked it away before it tried biting him._

_Sandra didn't stop though, she kept trying to crawl towards him as Clementine hurriedly opened the sliding glass door._  
_"here!" She cried, handing him the hammer she had considered dropping on his head._

_he grabbed the hammer quickly, knocking Sandra off of him with the object before quickly bashing her head in until she stopped moving._

_"..Hi there" Lee Offered, standing up fully. "did you kill it?" Clementine asked, looking down in silent horror at her babysitter's corpse. "I don't know.. I think so?" he looked down at the corpse and winced. "Sometimes they come back.." Clementine said, eyes wide in fear- not fearful of Lee, but fearful of the walkers. "have.. You killed one?"_  
_"No.. but they get shot alot."_  
_Lee's eyebrows furrowed in concern and he leaned down on one knee. "you've been.. All by yourself through this?"_  
_"Yeah. I want my parents to come home now.."_  
_"I think that might be a little while..ya know?"_  
_Clementine let out a soft 'oh' in response, looking to the side. "Look, I dont know what happened, but I'll look after you till then"_  
_"what should we do now?"_  
_"we need to find help before it gets dark"_

_Clementine went to blink as tears blurred her vision, quickly finding herself unable to talk or see anything as darkness covers her vision._


	3. Chapter 2- On the path

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning(s) for this chapter:  
> Death mention

Clementine has dreams, they aren't meaningful or prophetic. Just dreams.

In some, she finds her parents, they apologize for leaving her and promise to never do it again. In most, she finds herself with Lee again, most of the time it's on the train, sometimes in that dreaded jewelry store.

He tells her to shoot him, and she obliges.

 

Clementine wakes up to a rustle in the woods beside her. Her eyes go wide, clenching her arm to her chest with shaking hands to grip a small pocket knife that she looted off a guard back at Howes. She stayed silent, hoping that the rustle was simply a wild animal.

...

It was.. a dog.

 

Clementine knows that it's her inner-child speaking but she can't help but get excited, the last time she'd seen a dog was before the walkers, and it brought a soft smile to her face realizing animals can thrive in this world. Even when everything else is dying.

 

Eventually, she gives in to her childlike urges and carefully climbs down, letting her guard down for a couple minutes as she goes to approach the dog.

 

The animal catches sight of her quickly, its ears go flat and it lets out a growl, Clementine's mind races as she slowly raises her hands to show it she isn't armed. 

"its okay boy, it's okay.." she cautions, suddenly regretting her decision to show herself to the dog.

The dog slowly relaxed, letting out a relaxed ‘borf!’ as its tail wagged. 

Slowly, Clementine reached for the dog's collar, dirty and blood-stained. "what's your name.." the collar let out a jingle as a dog tag becomes visible. Clementine grabbed onto it gently, slowly turning it so the dog's name was visible. “Sam, Huh?” she muttered, and the dog let out a yip before turning, yanking the dog tags away from Clementine's hand and running a few feet deeper into the forest before barking again.

“are you.. leading me somewhere?” she muttered to herself, quickly glancing behind her to see if she left anything behind. she grumbled in annoyance as she noticed her backpack still hanging by one of the lower branches, she quickly backtracked and grabbed onto the top strap, pulling it off the branch with a quiet snap. “Wait up, Boy, wait up” she muttered to herself, quickly making her way towards the dog.

 

-

 

When Sam bit into her arm for daring to try to help the animal, Clementine let put a cry of pain, kicking him away before chucking the can into the treeline. He growled at her before making a beeline for the food, leaving her to shakily stumble away.

-

 

Clementine didn't know how long she walked, the wound on her arm letting out pulses of pain every time it brushed against her sleeve.

eventually, her vision blurred together and she made her way over to a couple of rocks, sitting down to regain her balance.

 

She wished Reggie were here right now, the guy wasn't the best with serious situations but he never failed to make her chuckle when it counted- Fuck Was he even okay?

 

She heard the walkers approaching first, half-lidded eyes going wide in fear as she looked for the source of the sound with her blurry vision. no matter where she looked, she could see the walkers steadily approaching.

 

Pushing herself up, Clementine rushed to get away from them, disoriented from blood loss and stumbling occasionally. she heard the walkers inching closer to her until she knew they were at arm's length.

 

A crushing weight hit her, knocking her down onto the harsh dirt below her. she barely managed to flip onto her back before the walker pinned her down, growling loudly as it made feeble attempts to snap at her. Pushing it back with what little strength she had proved useless as it lunged forward to bite into her neck-

 

-only to be met with a sharp blade cutting its head off.

 

A soft click of an arrow being fired sent a splash of black blood onto the ground as a walker collapsed, an arrow through the skull and out the eye. 

The other person fired another arrow, hitting another walker with a sickening crunch as it fell. “I'm out, grab her and let's get outta here” she assumed that was the one with the crossbow since it was slightly distant. “come on kid, we gotta get!” a man with a slight southern accent said from beside her.

 

Clementine couldn't really comprehend what was happening.. one minute she was laying on the ground, and the next she was in someone's arms as they ran through the trees. 

 

After a bit, Clementine began to become somewhat coherent again, her vision clearing enough to see faint smudges of color that blurred together as they moved past them. 

 

The two men continued running for a bit before stopping as the older of the two caught his breath. “I think- I think we're safe,” he said, glancing over his shoulder to confirm or deny his claim. The other man turned his head as well, scanning the trees for any sign of trouble. “yeah..” he paused glancing back to Clementine with a look of concern. “yeah we're good..” he paused again, glancing up to the older man before turning his gaze directly to her. “hey, you all right?” he tried. 

 

“I'm fine. Just leave me be..” she struggled to say, not exactly trusting the two men, even if they had saved her life, people never do shit like that for no reason.. “oh, is that so? ‘Cause last time I saw you could barely crawl away from that Lurker back there.” he joked, bringing her out of her depressing thoughts. “Look, You're in bad shape kid” As he said those words, they continued walking, making Clementine extremely nervous as they did. what if these guys were Murders? Cannibals? What if they were like Carver? or 'The Stranger'? 

 

“What are you doing out here?” The older man asked and- Clementine still hadn't gotten a name from the two men so she was gonna start calling them whatever the fuck she wanted. “where are the uh... the people you're with? There's no chance you made it this long on your own..” The southern guy said “I don't want them thinkin’ we're doin’ anything but tryin’ to help you” Green shirt chided in. “I'm alone, Everyone I know got separated. It's just me now..” she murmured towards the end. 

 

“I'm sorry to hear that” Southern guy offered. “I Just lost a sister, We've all lost folks. maybe we could try to help you find them eventually?” Green glanced over to her. ‘Jesus does everyone around here have a southern accent?’ “Well I'm Luke, and this is Pete” souther- Luke said. “Hi, there” Pete glanced over. “..Hi. I'm Clementine” She really hoped neither of them wanted to comment on her name, not exactly in the mood to even bother explaining it. “It's nice to meet you, Clementine. For now, we're gonna take you back to our group. okay? we got a doctor with us and you look like you could use some-” he looked down to her, eyes quickly widening as he noticed her blood-soaked arm. “-OH SHIT!” he half yelled, quickly dropping Clementine onto the ground. 

 

Clementine yelped in pain as he did, glaring up at him. “What? what is it?” Pete demanded. “she's.. She's been bit, man. FUCK! Fuck fuck fuck... what are we gonna do here...?” Luke started pacing in stress and Pete hummed in response. “No! it was a dog!” Clementine exclaimed, eyes wide with fear. ‘Jesus what have I gotten herself into??’

“I didn't see any dog, Clementine.” Pete crossed his arms, frowning. 

“Come on, Kid. Look we just saw you with those Lurkers back there!” Luke pointed angrily at her as he paced.

 

“No! it really was a dog! please believe me..”

“Look I want to kid... But I gotta believe my own two eyes first... and I didn't see no dog around.”

“No, it was from before!”

“Hmm. alright, Let's see it” Pete walked towards her.

“whoa whoa hey, watch yourself”

Clementine turned to glare at Luke, not bothering to mask her anger. 

“Hey. Don't look at me like that! You're the one that's bit here, Okay?” Luke turned away from her and Pete, crossing his arms

Pete crouched down to inspect her wound, Pushing the blood-soaked sleeve back so he could see the damage. “See?” Clementine murmured. “Is it, uh, is it like she says?” Luke looked over his shoulder. “hmm, well could be a dog, hard to say” he paused, seeming to consider something before speaking again “So where'd this 'dog' go?”

“It- It ran away” she blurted out.

 

“well thats awfully convenient now ain't it?” “well what did you expect, Luke?” Pete answered, glancing over to the other male. “I don't know!” he turned away. “he attacked me!” she exclaimed. “Still seems awfully convenient.” his voice became softer as he spoke.

 

“Clementine?” Pete said, likely to change the subject. “yes?” she asked. “you tellin’ us the truth? you look me in the eyes when you answer.” “yes!” she hurried to say. “hmm. All right Clementine. That's good enough for me”

“well, what else was she gonna say?”

“I've got a good bullshit detector, Luke, that's why you can never beat me at poker”

“pfft. You don't always beat me at...” he paused, realization dawning on his face. “All right, how can you be sure?”

“Well, I'm sure I ain't willing to leave a little girl in the woods to die when we got a doctor with us that can make a call. we can have Carlos take a look at it first.” ‘These guys had a doctor? if this works out I might be able to actually live here once I find Molly and Christa’

“Nick ain't gonna like this. Not with what happened to-” “you don't have to remind me of that, Boy” Clementine didn't really understand at first until she remembered Pete's words from earlier, about losing a sister. Perhaps it was another group member but it was the closest thing she had to information on the two's groups besides that they had a doctor. “Right. Sorry sir” Luke apologized.

Pete patted his shoulder before speaking. “Come on.” and he started walking. Clementine took a step, noticing how blurry her vision was already becoming.

“Clementine, are you feelin’ all right?” Pete asked from somewhere ahead of her. 

 

“I'm fine... Just.. tired” she said softly.

“Well you better be fine, ‘cause I ain't carryin’ you anymore with that bite on your arm” Clementine wished she had enough strength to call him out for being an asshole, but instead decided to play it safe. 

“Don't worry about..” Clementine's vision distorted and blurred and lost her balance, falling to the ground quickly. Before she could fully faint and surrender herself to exhaustion, Clementine could faintly hear Luke and Pete speaking frantically. 

**Author's Note:**

> so basically Clem is babey


End file.
